First Coastal Virginia Monopiles En Route to US - Offshore WIND
First Coastal Virginia Monopiles En Route to US | Offshore Wind
First Coastal Virginia Monopiles En Route to US
The first eight monopiles for the 2.6 GW Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW) project have set sail from EEW SPC’s factory in Rostock, Germany, and are en route to the Portsmouth Marine Terminal in the US.
On 21 September, the first eight monopiles for Dominion Energy’s CVOW project were loaded at the Rostock quayside. In preparation for RoRo loading, the units were lifted into the transport cradle using the Strand Jack system.
The 83-metre-long foundations are on their way to Portsmouth Marine Terminal in Portsmouth, Virginia, where they will arrive in approximately two and a half weeks.
In total, EEW SPC will manufacture 176 monopiles that weigh 1,538 tonnes and have a diameter of up to 9.5 metres that will be installed on the offshore construction site by DEME Group.
As reported, Dominion Energy selected a consortium of DEME and Prysmian as the Balance of Plant (BoP) contractors in charge of the transportation and installation of the foundations and the substations, and the engineering, procurement, construction, and installation (EPCI) services for the inter-array and export cables for what will be the largest commercial offshore wind farm in the United States.
The 2.6 GW CVOW project is being built approximately 27 miles (about 43 kilometres) off the Virginia coast.
Recently, the US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) completed its environmental review of the proposed project.
The offshore wind farm will feature 176 Siemens Gamesa 14 MW wind turbines with the installation scheduled to begin next year.
Once fully operational in 2026, the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project is expected to generate enough electricity to power up to 660,000 households.
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Related Knowledge Center: Offshore wind energy
Over the next decade, U.S. offshore wind power is expected to grow from a single 30-megawatt wind farm off Rhode Island to more than 2,000 MW of capacity along the Atlantic Seaboard. There are contracts for wind power off the coasts of Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Maryland, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Virginia.
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory has estimated the United States has over 4,000 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind potential, enough to power the country four times over.
The growth in part being spurred by state solicitations, including in New York, where then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) set a commitment of 9,000 MW of offshore wind by 2035, and in Connecticut, where in June 2021, Gov. Ned Lamont (D) signed legislation authorizing the construction of 2,000 MW of offshore wind by 2030.
The offshore development is also being driven by an investment tax credit set to end in December 2019 and is equal to 12 percent of expenditures. U.S. Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Tom Carper (D-Del.) have introduced a bill to extend the tax credit for up to eight years.
The Interior Department has held eight competitive lease sales that resulted in 15 offshore wind leases over 1.7 million acres that has the potential for 21 GW of capacity. In February 2022, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management completed a bidding process that realized $4.37 billion for 488,000 acres across six lease areas in federal waters off New York and New Jersey.
Projects have also been proposed off the Southeast coast, off California and Hawaii, and for the Great Lakes.